I absolutely love the eShop. It reminds me of the App Store back around 2011 when every week we were seeing a new crop of premium indies release. You know. Before the whole F2P phenomenon.
Akane released on May 17th (2019) by developer, Ludic Studios under the Qubic Games umbrella. You play as the heroine, Akane. A badass, gun toting samurai that is ready to die for anything.
Akane plays out like a simple arena-based shooter. It’s just you up against wave after wave of enemies. What makes this game different is that it has style. The fighting feels like it was ripped out of the movie, Kill Bill. Everything is fast, fluid, and calculated……and it has to be! That’s where some players might be put off.
Akane is absolutely BRUTAL!! One false move and it’s game over. I’m talking one single hit and your done. So, every move you make has to be perfect. The game does a good job of forcing you to mix things up also. You can’t just sit in one place and shoot. Because once you’re out of rounds, you’ll need to use your katana to build up stamina in order to use your gun again. It’s a great idea in my opinion.
Once you start making combos and earning boldness, you’ll be able to use your special abilities like the Dragon Slash. This is where I started to have problems. With everything being so fast-paced, it was tough to try and aim a slash while Time was stopped and then get back in the groove. There was definitely a learning curve.
I will say that Akane may feel a bit grindy for some players. There’s a lot of repetition going on and like I said, once you’re hit, it’s game over. Luckily there are missions that will reward you with new gear. Each piece of gear can drastically change up your game. The only downside is that the missions are pretty hard to attain. They aren’t impossible, but definitely tough.
Regardless of the difficulty, I still really liked Akane. The pixel art is beautifully done and the soundtrack gets your blood pumping while white-knuckling the controller. And that feeling of finally getting a new piece of gear is hard to replicate. Throw in the lower price point and you’ve got yourself a pretty solid action game. Just be prepared to die……..a lot.
NOEN (@hashtagNOEN)
